Happy Halloween!

Our kids are getting too old!
They've reached the ages where
they refuse to allow mom and dad
to have complete creative control
of their pumpkins. :0(

Jason had them draw their pumpkin
faces by themselves. Ty decided on
a bat....look carefully! :0)

Jason helped Ty carve out his bat
with two big eyes. He was quite proud!

Sydney had a cute pumpkin design.
Her jack-o-lantern even had blush!

We've been addicted to Food Network Challenge.
They recently had an ultimate pumpkin carving
episode. Needless to say, Summer decided
she had the skills necessary to pull off an
extreme pumpkin. We'll let you decide!

She had raised features and she carved
away the excess. It looks pretty cool, but
it doesn't show well in 2D pictures.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

How's your weather?

We had soccer practice in the snow!
SNOW before Halloween in Arizona
is just plain crazy! LOVE IT!!!

Ty was playing in it barefoot.
He is one warm blooded soul!

Sydney was cold, cold, cold.
Notice her fun earrings?
Clip-on skeletons!

In the attempt to stay warm, Summer
decided to stay inside and entertain me
with her Michael Jackson impressions.
Guess we need to go see his
movie this weekend.

What's your weather like?

Let's Talk Talent!

I have the most talented son in the world!
If you are about to try to dispute me, let me
stop you right there! Ty has proof!
Let me turn the blog over to him.

1. I am only 4 years old
2. This trick I am about to do is called
'dropping in'. Yep, I'm only 4 and I've
been doing this for years!

3. Notice my 'no fear' face. It's because
I have NO FEAR! I freak my mom out
all day long. I love watching her squirm!

4. Do I even need to mention that I
scored 4 goals in my soccer game
yesterday? No? I didn't think so!!!

5. Now, that skill is called a 'kick flip'.
It's new to my repertoire and I plan
on perfecting it before I hit the big 5.

6. Look at her hands all over me for balance!
Is my sister (who is 5 1/2 years older than me,
by the way) a wimp or what? I'm offering lessons
at only $350 an hour. Call me to set up an
appointment. My calendar fills up
pretty quick, though! :0)
OK, it's Jen again. Sorry, he is a little
cocky, but rightfully so. What a little stud!
I told you he is a pretty cool kid.
Like father, like son!!!

Summer's First Jr. High Dance

Sydney and her friend Clay are singing
a duet in church on Sunday. We arranged for
him to come over after Syd's soccer practice
to practice. Luckily, he brought an
entourage to help us get Summer
ready for her first dance!

Heather did an amazing job with Summer's
makeup. She was such a good sport...she even
let Sydney put crazy makeup on her!
Thanks, Heather!!!
I even made them taste Summer's fake
blood: Karo Syrup, Red Food Coloring,
& Chocolate Syrup. It was tasty!!!

The theme was Vampires & Zombies.
When we arrived at the dance, we were
greeted by 2 of Summer's team mates.
Collette looked amazing. That is her real
hair! Katie looked really good, too!

My friend Connie was there dropping of her
son Alexander. He walked right past me and
I didn't even recognize him. Can you tell that
Connie is an artist? Put me to shame!!!

Savanah looked adorable! She had the coolest
mummy dress! Summer looks like she is about
to attack her with the fake nails she's hating
me for. I hope they come off easily! If not,
I will never hear the end of it!!!

The best part of my busy day was
coming home and finding this:

Ty had done all the dishes and loaded the
dishwasher. He looked so cute standing on the
chair and scrubbing away! I love my kids!!!

Cute and Easy Cupcake Toppers!

Tonight was our Spaghetti Dinner at our
school. Summer is the Jr. High Secretary
so she had to bring some baked goods for the
Bake Sale. I found these and had to make them!

I made my typical yellow cupcakes and
added these adorable white chocolate
toppers atop chocolate frosting.

I found the idea here. They even have
a downloadable template for the spiderwebs.
Just put a sheet of parchment paper over the template
and pipe away (freezer bags work great). E.A.S.Y!

Now, they aren't perfect, but it was fun.
They disappeared instantly at the Bake Sale!

Just add a spider ring and these will be a
sure hit at any Halloween party!

When you're bored...

What do you do on a lazy afternoon?
We lay down in Ty's room and snap
some pictures. Cute kids!!!

Ty was sick all week with a bad cold and
double eye infections. I have some nasty
pictures of that, but I will save those for the
Halloween post. :0) He's all better now.
We've never had those before...yuck!!!

Our kids are great. Here's this
weeks soccer updates:
Ty scored 2 goals and tied 2-2
Sydney was awesome! Won 2-1
Summer's team dominated! Won 10-0!
Keep it up kids!!!

Pumpkin Juggling

Becky and Brad had heard of a nursery
that sold pumpkins in an unusual way.
$16.99 for as many pumpkins as you
could carry (w/o touching the ground).

Brad was the one who did it,
but the kids gave it a try the
next night with Randy, Cheryl,
Brittani, and my parents cheering
them on. Ty maxed out at 2!

Syd was able to get 3!
Her hair looks great, if I do
say so myself! :0)

Summer pulled off 5!

Becky managed 7....with
them crashing down after
I took the picture.

But Brad was the champion!
9 full sized pumpkins! 2 in-between
his legs and 1 in his teeth.

I wonder, will the nursery offer
this again next year? Way to
go Brad. He gave us 3 of his
prized pumpkins. THANKS!!!
We love pumpkin juggling!

The Pumpkin Patch

We had a 3 day weekend for Columbus Day
(thanks, Columbus) and headed down to Southern
California. My parents just bought a new house
(2 people living in a house bigger than mine
that houses 5). We helped them paint and
fun things like that. I'll post about that later.

While Jason and I slaved away, Becky and Brad
gladly took some time off of slave work and
took our kids to the Pumpkin Farm.

Apparently, Summer didn't get the
memo on this one. Nice face, Ty!

Becky and Brad will be the best parents when their
turn comes. My kids adore them! I think
my kids would gladly swap lives and live
in their awesome house year round!

Summer was the first to enter the pen
with the food and they attacked. It
makes for one cute picture!!!

Brad and Summer tried to walk off
with a few. I guess they didn't succeed
since I made it home to Arizona goat free.

Um, Syd....you aren't supposed to nurse the goats!
THANKS, BEC & BRAD!
They had a great time!

The Silver Lining!

My sister-in-law, Christina, had to have knee
surgery today. I know this sounds horrible,
but it was awesome! OK, maybe not so great for
her, but we got to help her out in the best way
possible: We got Tanner for the whole day! Yay!!!

If Christina only knew what goes on here,
she probably wouldn't have allowed it. :0)
*Dart Guns
*Falling off the trampoline twice (shhhh)
*Lots of pumpkin bread
*No discipline (not that he needed any) :0)

These boys were in heaven!
Oops, hopefully Christina didn't notice the
chocolate chip cookie he's eating in that picture.
:0P

You name a wild activity....these boys did it!
We had a great time at the store, the park,
and ALL OVER our house. It was really
fun. Ty went straight to bed after he left!

Tanner helped me bake some Pumpkin
Bread and it was tasty! Glad he was such
a help around here. I can't wait 'till the
next time. Thanks for allowing me the
opportunity, Will and Christina. Now that you
know all that went on, am I still on your
babysitter list? I hope so! Get well soon!!!

It's Saturday!

I have featured Sydney
and Ty and their soccer careers
thus far. That leaves one more!
It's Summer's turn!

First off, we made a dangerous decision last
night. We let Summer sleep over at Savanah's
before the game. Usually this is a big no-no,
but her game wasn't until 11, so we figured
she would get enough rest. Well....

...she played the best game of the season!
From now on, she is sleeping at Savanah's
every Friday night. :0) The crazy thing
is, Summer's team is now co-ed. Unless you
make varsity at our high school, you will be on
a co-ed J.V. team. For that reason, we now
have all U14 teams running co-ed. Now,
look at the above picture. Keep in mind that
Summer is closest to the camera. She is the
smallest girl on the team and there are 'men'
on her team. SERIOUSLY! Puberty must have
come and gone for some of them years ago.
It is quite comical to see her defending
men twice her size.

They won their first game (out of 4) today.
She was one tough player and we were
really proud of her. As for the other kids:
Ty scored 3 goals!!!
Syd scored 1 goal and we ended
up with a 2-2 tie.
I LOVE SOCCER SEASON!!!